Author Topic: Books I'm reading/listening to  (Read 7701 times)

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Aldous Burbank

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Books I'm reading/listening to
« on: July 05, 2018, 01:05:38 PM »
100 Years of Solitude
Gabriel García Márquez
1967

It seems everyone with half a brain and functioning heart has read this. Since I'm usually running just under half a brain thinkfulness I was unaware of this work until an exceedingly brilliant and beautiful woman gifted it to me. Handing it to me, it was as if her eyes private messaged my soul, subject matter: Here ya go dipshit, something for you and your little fetish for magical realism...

I'm enjoying the artistry of words that reads like a melody with imagery as its rhythm. It has a flavor of needing to be read aloud by lovers. I'm only a third through it at a slow pace because I keep going back and savoring paragraphs. Of course I have little retention capacity for this level of wordcraft. The following video pretty much captures my pace and reading style with this book.




Spookcat

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Re: Books I'm reading/listening to
« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2018, 12:59:44 AM »
100 Years of Solitude
Gabriel García Márquez
1967

It seems everyone with half a brain and functioning heart has read this. Since I'm usually running just under half a brain thinkfulness I was unaware of this work until an exceedingly brilliant and beautiful woman gifted it to me. Handing it to me, it was as if her eyes private messaged my soul, subject matter: Here ya go dipshit, something for you and your little fetish for magical realism...

I'm enjoying the artistry of words that reads like a melody with imagery as its rhythm. It has a flavor of needing to be read aloud by lovers. I'm only a third through it at a slow pace because I keep going back and savoring paragraphs. Of course I have little retention capacity for this level of wordcraft. The following video pretty much captures my pace and reading style with this book.



I like Gabriel García Márquez. Memories of my Melancholy Whores was my introduction to him.

I recently finished Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut after a suggestion from Bellgab. Now I'm reading What If? by Randall Munroe. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21413662-what-if
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vathek

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Re: Books I'm reading/listening to
« Reply #2 on: July 06, 2018, 01:43:46 AM »
100 Years of Solitude
Gabriel García Márquez
1967

It seems everyone with half a brain and functioning heart has read this. Since I'm usually running just under half a brain thinkfulness I was unaware of this work until an exceedingly brilliant and beautiful woman gifted it to me. Handing it to me, it was as if her eyes private messaged my soul, subject matter: Here ya go dipshit, something for you and your little fetish for magical realism...

I'm enjoying the artistry of words that reads like a melody with imagery as its rhythm. It has a flavor of needing to be read aloud by lovers. I'm only a third through it at a slow pace because I keep going back and savoring paragraphs. Of course I have little retention capacity for this level of wordcraft.

He's on the level of Borges: "How was this possible?"

And the discovery of Márquez' glittering sentences is riven by a horrifying afterthought: the beauty suffusing our brains, in English, is owed mostly the translator, Gregory Rabassa.

The same dread realization struck as I etched Le Corbusier's lapidary aphorisms into the lintels of my mind.  Simulacra, approximations, renditions offered — with conviction! — by secondary interpreters.  Still glowing, but through a hazy gauze of language.

spacegirl

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Re: Books I'm reading/listening to
« Reply #3 on: July 08, 2018, 06:38:13 PM »
Finished The Cruise of the Snark, Jack London, 1911.

Luminous prose, duh, and an ending uncomfortably close to The Sea Wolf's: the betrayal of the mind by the body.

Tina

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Re: Books I'm reading/listening to
« Reply #4 on: July 08, 2018, 08:05:34 PM »
I just started reading The Outsider by Stephen King. At over 500 pages, it's probably going to take me a while. I hope it's worth it.

spacegirl

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Re: Books I'm reading/listening to
« Reply #5 on: July 09, 2018, 01:12:06 PM »
Save the sometimes too-explicit gore, King rarely lets me down.

Tina

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Re: Books I'm reading/listening to
« Reply #6 on: July 09, 2018, 08:01:32 PM »
Save the sometimes too-explicit gore, King rarely lets me down.

I'm hoping this is a good one. The reviews I have seen have been good, but to be honest I only read a handful.

Belles

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Re: Books I'm reading/listening to
« Reply #7 on: July 09, 2018, 09:08:59 PM »
it was pretty good.  Reminded me of IT in some ways.

Tina

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Re: Books I'm reading/listening to
« Reply #8 on: July 09, 2018, 10:04:27 PM »
it was pretty good.  Reminded me of IT in some ways.

Thanks, Belles!  :)

Faustina

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Re: Books I'm reading/listening to
« Reply #9 on: July 09, 2018, 11:56:11 PM »
Reading Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett.  About a coven of witches.  Fascinating and funny. 

Spookcat

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Re: Books I'm reading/listening to
« Reply #10 on: July 10, 2018, 12:07:09 AM »
Reading Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett.  About a coven of witches.  Fascinating and funny.

Terry Pratchett is one of my favorites. I love his personification of Death.
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spacegirl

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Re: Books I'm reading/listening to
« Reply #11 on: July 10, 2018, 10:55:06 AM »
Terry Pratchett is one of my favorites. I love his personification of Death.

How did you discover Pratchett?

Most of my early scifi/fantasy picks were governed by the shelf-stockers at Barnes & Noble.  I always fell for the cover art, first.  (And I always split toward scifi first).  I couldn't get through this collection of short stories by David Brin ("Otherness"), but I still dream about the possibilities suggested by its cover, painted by Donato Giancola.

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albrecht

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Re: Books I'm reading/listening to
« Reply #12 on: July 10, 2018, 06:13:03 PM »
Finished "The Last Good Kiss" by James Crumley. Interesting book. As Wiki says "a mix of Hammet and Hunter Thompson," sorta but in some ways better than both. Not a typical detective story with some interesting twists. Pretty gritty at times and not for kids but a good read. Not sure why he didn't more popularity in general because he writes well and the characters are excellent and interesting. Some plot twists also! I'm definitely going to pick up the next book in the series "The Mexican Tree Duck."

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/523795.The_Last_Good_Kiss

as an interesting note on the author's life, from wiki:

""He did cocaine six days a week. Ate five times a day. Drank a bottle of whiskey every day. He said, 'This is how I like to live. If I live 10 years less, so what?'"[12] He was survived by his fifth wife of 16 years, Martha Elizabeth, a poet and artist. He had five children (including three from his second marriage and two from his fourth), eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Crumley's death prompted an "outpouring of affection" from the citizens of Missoula. Crumley's favorite seat in his favorite bar was put aside to honor him"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Crumley

spacegirl

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Re: Books I'm reading/listening to
« Reply #13 on: July 10, 2018, 06:27:03 PM »
Exquisite, albrecht.

Looking forward to another Ellroy.

"None of it made sense; all of it felt good." —The Black Dahlia

Spookcat

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Re: Books I'm reading/listening to
« Reply #14 on: July 10, 2018, 10:21:56 PM »
How did you discover Pratchett?

Most of my early scifi/fantasy picks were governed by the shelf-stockers at Barnes & Noble.  I always fell for the cover art, first.  (And I always split toward scifi first).  I couldn't get through this collection of short stories by David Brin ("Otherness"), but I still dream about the possibilities suggested by its cover, painted by Donato Giancola.

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My intro to Pratchett was a mix of working in a library and my mother-in-law being a fan and telling me to go for it.  :)

I've also just finished The Picture of Dorian Gray, which somehow I've missed before. Absolutely loved it.
Next up is The Wild Trees by Richard Preston.

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"The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring is a non-fiction book by Richard Preston about California's coastal redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) and the recreational climbers who climbed them. It is a narrative-style collection of stories from climbers who pioneered redwood climbing, including botanist Steve Sillett, lichenologist Marie Antoine, and Michael Taylor. They inadvertently discovered a thriving ecosystem hidden among the tree tops, 60–90 meters (200–300 ft) above, of redwood lattices, berry bushes, bonsai trees, epiphytes, lichens, voles, and salamanders. "
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